Newman and Sutcliffe in top ten ladies at the South West Cross Country Championships.

21:21 08 January 2014

While even in 2013 it would not do to make comparisons with mud-loving quadrupeds it is fair to say that there was little self-consciousness in the Exmouth Harriers women’s team’s enjoyment of last Sunday’s course, writes Dave Eveleigh.

The South West Cross Country Championships were held at Killerton where eighty female athletes completed a course of about 6km.

Cathy Newman had an outstanding run, finishing 9th overall and winning the Women ages 50-54 category in a time of 24:26.

Ellie Sutcliffe did well to finish 10th in 24:31, just behind Cathy Newman, having arrived late at the start.

Not realising that different races overlapped in time she was not on the line, but waiting for the male stragglers to finish when the gun sounded.

Inter-County competitions were included in these races and Cathy and Ellie scored for the Devon Women’s team which finished second behind Avon.

Hannah Bown was 25th in 26:26 and close together were; Alice Kelly 57th in 29:22, Emma White 58th in 29:28 and Carly Miller 59th in 30:01.

Also coming in close together were Jane MacDonald (67th in 32:35), Dawn Teed (70th in 32:55) and Susan Hill (71st in 33:20).

Axe Valley Runners Grizzly multi-terrain race is the seminal post-modern cross country race, often imitated, but never bettered and still incredibly popular after nearly 30 years, writes Dave Eveleigh.

With Friday, forecast to be the best gliding day of the week, Devon and Somerset Gliding Club members used social media to get together on a non-club day - the second so far this year, writes Jill Harmer.

King’s College, Taunton, has just launched a multi-sport BTEC qualification that will potentially involve a number of the major professional sporting clubs across the south-west of England, providing opportunities in a variety of sports.